Angst over Sunrice redundancies

The Mayor of the Leeton Shire Paul Maytom is concerned that Sunrice has cut four jobs in Leeton during such a big harvest.

In a statement, the company says Sunrice's workforce is in regular flux as its business priorities change and it is currently reviewing its structure.

The statement says a small number of positions have been cut at Leeton and elsewhere, but 200 people have been employed to process the harvest.

Councillor Maytom says Sunrice is a big local employer and there are questions in the community.

"We've only had confirmation there's been four people affected here at the head office at Leeton," he said.

"They are all fairly experienced people in highly qualified jobs. It obviously does concern us, however we know we have no control over that."

This year's crop is the largest since 2006 with one million tonnes of rice harvested to date.

Councillor Maytom says while Sunrice says it is reviewing its structure, people thought their jobs were safe.

"We are not having a drought at the present time, we appear to be having good times as far as the weather goes, good crop size so it has come as a bit of a shock to the community," he said.

"There's talk of people, well those that have been made redundant and the possibility of others. And we just want to get some assurance that hopefully there is not more. But if there is more, we would just like to be aware of it and try to understand why."

Moscow's words and actions — including the alleged poisoning of a former spy — are not the results of random aggression but rather fall into distinct patterns that can help us anticipate Russia's next moves under Vladimir Putin.